Johnson, Lloyd E., 1938-

Born on Aug. 15, 1938 in Alton, Ill., one of ten siblings in an African-American farm family. He was born on the farm purchased by his great-grandfather in 1850, who crossed over the river as a free man from Missouri. He purchased 200 acres outside of Alton where the farm exists today. The farm has passed down through the male heirs of the family to Lloyd. Recently, Mr. Johnson has retired and now leases the land of the farm to others while he still lives on the property. For much of the farm's history, the farming was done with teams of horses. Lloyd's father (Cyrus) always used Percheron draft horses when working on the farm. Starting in 1941, to make ends meet his father also worked in the local lead works. Lloyd went to school in a one room school house from first to eighth grade. When he started middle school he was bused into a town school. He would walk one mile from home to the bus stop, a big improvement over the seven or eight miles some of his siblings had to walk to school. The farm was very diversified at the time, with dairy cows, hogs, corn, soy beans and wheat, with a large garden where everything was canned to help feed the family during the winter. Lloyd has been involved in numerous agricultural organizations. As a youth he was in the Future Farmers of America (FFA). The family's Baptist faith has always played a central role for Lloyd. In his later years Lloyd joined the Farm Services Agency (FSA) on the county level. In this position he worked with a committee to evaluate policies. After a 1990 black farmers' lawsuit against the USDA, Lloyd was asked to serve on the State FSA Committee. He maintains his political independence and is the only non-partisan appointee to this political position. Lloyd has also been elected as the first black highway commissioner in his county.